How Do Hamlet's Seven Soliloquies Reveal His Character
Annotated Bibliography and Research Paper Prompts
ENG 102
Choose one of the following prompts to complete your annotated bibliography and final research paper. The prompt you choose now will be the same one you complete for both assignments. Do not wait until the last minute to begin your annotated bibliography. You will not do well, and this, if done correctly, is a huge part of your research paper. A good annotated bibliography results in the bulk of the work being finished for the research paper.
1. How do Hamlet’s seven soliloquies reveal his character? What do they say about him? Create a thesis statement and use the text and scholarly resources to defend that thesis.
2. Hamlet has been called a "claustrophobic" play because of the ways the different characters spy on one another, but "spying" is only one form of deception in the play. There is also Claudius, the incestuous fratricide, playing the part of the good king, and Hamlet himself decides to "put an antic disposition on" (1.5.189). In a way, it is Hamlet 's job to see through all of this deception and to discover the truth, although, to discover the truth, Hamlet himself must use deception. What point is Shakespeare trying to make by introducing all of the deception, lying, and false appearances into his play? …show more content…
3.
"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" (1.4.98). In fact, many things are rotten in the state of Denmark, and images of decay, corruption, and disease are common throughout the play. Following the conventions of tragedy, many of the characters become corrupted in some way, and, by the end of the play, all of the corrupt characters must be eliminated so that Denmark can once again be set right. Many characters in Hamlet die. In what ways is each of these characters "corrupt"? What images in the play suggest decay, corruption, or
disease?
4. In her madness, Ophelia brings up an important theme of the play: "Lord," she says, "we know what we are, but know not what we may be" (4.5.43-44). Both "what we are" and "what we may be" are problems that Hamlet struggles with throughout the play. Should one lead an active life or a passive life? Does God help to direct our actions? Is the world nothing more than a prison? Is there a meaning to life? Are some of Hamlet 's views on life too pessimistic, or are his views supported by the world of the play? Is Hamlet an idealistic and therefore disappointed by the realities of life?
5. In The New Negro, Alain Locke declares, “In Harlem, Negro life is seizing upon its first chances for group expression and self-determination.” Do poems such as Arna Bontemps’s “A Black Man Talks of Reaping,” Angelina Grimke’s “The Black Finger,” and Langston Hughes’s “I, Too” achieve a common social consciousness – Locke’s “group expression”? What political effect do you think these poets hoped to achieve through their work? Analyze the political ideas in the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance.
6. What does it mean for a group of artist to be considered a “school” – that is, a group whose work appears to share common themes, styles, and goals? Discuss whether or not the writers of the Harlem Renaissance spoke with a unified voice. Does a grouping like “the Harlem Renaissance” help our understanding of this period and the art it produced, or does it obscure the individual achievements?
ENG 102
Choose one of the following prompts to complete your annotated bibliography and final research paper. The prompt you choose now will be the same one you complete for both assignments. Do not wait until the last minute to begin your annotated bibliography. You will not do well, and this, if done correctly, is a huge part of your research paper. A good annotated bibliography results in the bulk of the work being finished for the research paper.
1. How do Hamlet’s seven soliloquies reveal his character? What do they say about him? Create a thesis statement and use the text and scholarly resources to defend that thesis.
2. Hamlet has been called a "claustrophobic" play because of the ways the different characters spy on one another, but "spying" is only one form of deception in the play. There is also Claudius, the incestuous fratricide, playing the part of the good king, and Hamlet himself decides to "put an antic disposition on" (1.5.189). In a way, it is Hamlet 's job to see through all of this deception and to discover the truth, although, to discover the truth, Hamlet himself must use deception. What point is Shakespeare trying to make by introducing all of the deception, lying, and false appearances into his play? …show more content…
3.
"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" (1.4.98). In fact, many things are rotten in the state of Denmark, and images of decay, corruption, and disease are common throughout the play. Following the conventions of tragedy, many of the characters become corrupted in some way, and, by the end of the play, all of the corrupt characters must be eliminated so that Denmark can once again be set right. Many characters in Hamlet die. In what ways is each of these characters "corrupt"? What images in the play suggest decay, corruption, or
disease?
4. In her madness, Ophelia brings up an important theme of the play: "Lord," she says, "we know what we are, but know not what we may be" (4.5.43-44). Both "what we are" and "what we may be" are problems that Hamlet struggles with throughout the play. Should one lead an active life or a passive life? Does God help to direct our actions? Is the world nothing more than a prison? Is there a meaning to life? Are some of Hamlet 's views on life too pessimistic, or are his views supported by the world of the play? Is Hamlet an idealistic and therefore disappointed by the realities of life?
5. In The New Negro, Alain Locke declares, “In Harlem, Negro life is seizing upon its first chances for group expression and self-determination.” Do poems such as Arna Bontemps’s “A Black Man Talks of Reaping,” Angelina Grimke’s “The Black Finger,” and Langston Hughes’s “I, Too” achieve a common social consciousness – Locke’s “group expression”? What political effect do you think these poets hoped to achieve through their work? Analyze the political ideas in the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance.
6. What does it mean for a group of artist to be considered a “school” – that is, a group whose work appears to share common themes, styles, and goals? Discuss whether or not the writers of the Harlem Renaissance spoke with a unified voice. Does a grouping like “the Harlem Renaissance” help our understanding of this period and the art it produced, or does it obscure the individual achievements?